


by the rockpool

by getcool (avatarstates)



Series: Haikyuu!! Liberoweek 2018 [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1990s, Beaches, Childhood, Cute Kids, Fishing, Gen, Ocean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 16:30:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16538171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avatarstates/pseuds/getcool
Summary: "Why does the starfish look funny at the back?""T-throw it back in the water!"where Komi Haruki pays a visit to the rocky beach near grandparents' oceanside village.





	by the rockpool

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Ever the curious person he is, Komi Haruki is delighted to hear about the rockpools by the shore near his grandparents' village. There's not much he can do here out here; there's no computers, no dial-up internet, possibly no service, so he's pretty much off the grid from his friends back in Tokyo. It's not so bad, although in the past few days he's done nothing except watch old reruns of Ultraman episodes he's seen, running errands for his grandparents and getting around town.

"Ya can find all sorts of critters in rockpools," says the fishmonger from the market, who notices Haruki's interest in the mussels he sells. "There's fish, seaweed, some shellfish but if yer lucky ya might find starfish or sea urchin."

Haruki's eyes are practically shining with delight. "Are some of them edible?"

"The critters?" asks the fishmonger. "Yeah, most of them are. But ya gotta watch out for the crabs. They're feisty little ones, I tell ya. Snapping about with their claws any chance they get. Though they taste really good too, I guarantee."

When he returns home, Haruki pesters his sister, Hana, to join him by the shore later that afternoon. Irritated that he disconnected her Walkman from her headphones, she gives him a cuff upside the head. "What is it?" she demands in annoyance.

"Rockpools!" exclaims Haruki, who is now rustling through his belongings at his side of the room. "The fishmonger said there'd be cool creatures we can find there."

"Like?" Haruki bites back a smile once he registers the cool note of interest in his sister's voice. He turns to find his sister pulling herself to a sitting position; the cheesy romance novel she's reread about fifty times lays face down next to her. "What cool creatures?" she asks.

"Starfish." Haruki grins. "Sea urchins. Also, he said the crabs would be delicious."

"D'you suppose we could find some prawns?" Hana questions thoughtfully. "It'd be nice to get grandma to make tempuras."

Haruki snaps his fingers, triumph swelling in his chest. "I like the way you're thinking already." Once they've come to mutual agreement, they head over to the storage shed behind the house. Back when grandfather was younger—and handsomer, so he claims—he used to catch fish as a hobby and still kept some of his nets. The siblings found what they were looking for; the nets where placed neatly along a rack so they selected whichever they liked and left the house.

The beach isn't far from the grandparents' house though they decided to take a detour because the shorter way was blocked off due to an ongoing road repair. It took about fifteen minutes for them to reach the shore by foot. They have never came down here since arriving at the village a few days ago so they relied on the roadsigns.

"The fishmonger was right," says Hana with an undertone.

"Why are you so pessimistic?" Haruki nudges her with his elbow. "Of course it'd be there."

They make their way down from the road down the slope to the shore. As the fishmonger had claimed, the beach was rocky so they picked their way around carefully, craning their heads when they spot a nice one fifty meters away from the road. It's a large one, judging from the way the water looks, it's most likely knee-deep.

Haruki spots a few fish darting here and there among the fronds of seaweed attached to rocks. He doesn't see any prawns though they should probably explore the pool for a bit. He takes off his shoes and tucks his socks in them before taking a leap into the pool. A loud splash follows and Hana shrieks from the stray droplets that land on her clothes. "Hey!" she exclaims but Haruki gives her a sly smile.

Even though he's wearing shorts that reach barely past his knees, the ends of it begin to soak as he wades through the pool. He spies on a little crab sunning on a rock nearby when his sister joins him in the pool.

The creatures that inhabit the pool are an interesting bunch. Tiny fish dart here and there between their legs, coming close in curiosity before speeding away when the Komi siblings move to inspect. Crabs scuttle away from their general direction though Haruki managed to catch one before it pinched his finger with its little claws in retaliation. They don't find prawns to their disappointment but just as they reach the end of the pool, Hana spots a bright red starfish in the water.

"Look!" She has to poke her brother to get his attention because he's engrossed on finding the prawn that sought its revenge on him.

"What?" Haruki looks to where she's pointing when his jaw drops. "That's—wow!"

"Right?" Hana's smile slides away when she sees Haruki's expression. "Haru, no." She tries to hold him by the sleeve but he slips out of grasp. "Haru, what if it's poisonous?"

Haruki lets a grunt of annoyance escape him. "It'll be fine!" he insists with a dismissive wave of his hand. Slowly, he wades over to where the starfish rests, a smile creeping up his features. It's an interesting specimen, no doubt; up close, he notices that there are orange spots that dot all over its five-limbed body. He eyes it with interest before he plunges his hand into water. Fingers grasp at the starfish, which barely struggles in his hold when he lifts it out of the water. "Look! Hana!"

Haruki thrusts it at his sister, who yelps in surprise from the sudden movement and falls backwards into water. He can't help but laugh at her as she flails to get up. "Not funny!" She hits his arm.

"It was." Haruki watches in amusement as she wades haughtily away from him. "Come on, you should've seen your face!"

"Bye, loser!"

Haruki chuckles to himself and looks back to the starfish in his hand. It's starting to move its limbs about as though it's saying it doesn't appreciate being out of the water. Haruki studies it with interest, marveled by how rough its exterior feels when he turns it around. And then his stomach drops.

The thing about starfish is that they're either portrayed in the media with their colored sides facing up and used as decoration by mermaids or whatever. Which meant Haruki didn't think twice about what the starfishes' undersides look.

Spoiler alert: they're terrifying.

The underside of the starfish he holds now has appears as though it has rows of sharp teeth—or tentacles but it's hard to tell—that run along its limbs and meet at its center. Also, they appear to be wriggling like they were trying to find purchase in the air. Haruki stares at it in fascination and horror before he finds his voice. "H-Hana?"

"What?" calls his sister's irritated voice about ten feet away. Apparently she was sidetracked by the seaweed growing by the rocks nearby. She turns to find a pale-looking Haruki, who is showing her the underside of the starfish. "What's wrong?" demands Hana, squinting and wading over.

"Why does the starfish look so funny at the back?"

When Hana is close enough to notice what her brother noticed, her eyes fly wide and she blanches in disgust and fear. "T-throw it back in the water!"

Haruki turns the starfish over to look at it once more when his finger accidentally comes in contact with the teeth-tentacle thing. A sharp pain shoots through his finger and he yelps, dropping the starfish in the water. His mouth hangs open in confusion when he notices a tiny object embedded in the pad of his finger, blood dotting where it's sunken in his flesh. "Oh god," he mutters while Hana stares at him in worry.

What he doesn't notice is that he dropped the starfish near his foot. It crawls towards him, seeking revenge while the Komi siblings are immobilized by panic. The moment it latches its limbs on the boy's foot, Haruki feels a sharp sting. He jumps in shock then realizes it's stuck to his foot and lets out an ear-piercing shriek.

Hana screams as well, scrambling back to where they left their shoes while Haruki swears and tries kicking around through the water to displace the starfish. It doesn't work because the starfish is probably very angry with Haruki so he's forced to pluck it out and hurl it away from him as far as he can. The starfish sails through the air like a shuriken—it would've been funny if he wasn't in this situation—and lands in a nearby rockpool with a plop.

Worried about the blood is escaping from his foot, Haruki pulls himself out of the water on a nearby rock and makes his way back to meet his sister. Hana is more shaken than he is for some reason, crying and calling him stupid for wanting to come over to this rockpool. Haruki doesn't respond to her but simply says, "We should go home."

They make their way back through the shorter route because the tree is now gone although the walk is uncomfortable because Haruki's wound keeps coming in contact with his shoes. When they reach home, Hana bursts through the door of the living room and informs the adults about what happened to her brother, while he stands mutely in the background.

"Why didn't you tell us where you two went?" demands his father, though his voice is stricken with worry.

"Nobody was home," replies Haruki. "Are you going to be mad at me while I bleed to death?"

His grandfather releases a loud sigh."Youth these days are so dramatic." He makes Haruki sit on the footrest then examines his grandson's foot. "You won't die from this. And don't you two act like he will," he adds to Haruki's parents whose faces have gone an alarming shade of white. "Back in my day, we got stung with starfish loads of times."

"Dad, that doesn't make it sound any better—" argues Haruki's mother.

"He'll be fine," insists Grandfather. "Just bring him to the clinic and the doctor will take care of him."

And this is how it became the last time Komi Haruki would ever trust a starfish.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are always appreciated so feel free to leave some! i'll do my best to reply to everyone :)  
> thank you so much for reading and i hope you'll have a lovely day!
> 
>  
> 
> [[ twitter ]](https://twitter.com/azunshi)  
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